The Issue with Love Potions
by Qu33rzi
Summary: A love potion for Neuro, a mischeviously meddling daemon, and a secret bet? Not to mention, a reverse placebo of sorts? Yako's life just got a whole lot harder. NxY, semi-fluffy, pre-HAL, partial OOCness, written for ChaosAngels4us
1. The Trickster Daemon

Apologies for the long silence.

Here it is- the revamped Issue with Love Potions for ChaosAngels4Us.

Hope you like it!

* * *

><p><strong>A true trickster shapes the world, for he turns the world on its head, exposes the truth of fools, and reveals that which lies within every heart.- V.N.R.<strong>

_The trickster daemon, Saraniyu, a tall, crooked, hunched over and disjointed man-like daemon dressed in a long black cloak and huge black hat, laughed as he crouched on top of a building across from the human girl named Yako's dwelling._

_Neuro, the ever sadistic puzzle daemon, keeping human female close to him? What a silly idea. He would have never believed it. Rumors, that was all it was._

_But... some time ago, his hungers brought him to Japan, and he had seen the puzzle-daemon's odd behavior himself with his very own eyes!_

_Saraniyu had kept observing them for some months now, intrigued by the puzzle-daemon's odd behavior. And he began to notice that the puzzle-daemon didn't _just_ keep the human girl close to him._

_The puzzle-daemon also protected her, (he had protected her, even if he had knocked her to the ground while doing so, from one humans' odd metal thing called a 'gun'), tormented/tortured her (which was an important part of daemon courting rituals), and even touched her constantly! (Odd for someone who claimed to have contempt for humans)_

_All on a daily basis! How very odd, Saraniyu mused to himself. The puzzle-daemon had always tended to be a solitary figure, even in the daemon world._

_For him to voluntarily remain this close to a female, for him to treat her in such a way... Saraniyu smiled mischievously, his mind in a whirl._

_The great puzzle-daemon truly had affection for the human female! But it didn't seem like he realized it. And if he didn't realize it... The trickster daemon smiled._

_What a ripe opportunity for some turmoil and chaos. Troubled and confused emotions always made for the *best* meals..._

_Saraniyu stood and smiled, tipping his hat to the wind. He threw his arms out wide to let the wind catch his cloak and carry him away into the night._

_He simply just couldn't wait for tomorrow. For then, the fun would begin..._

**-The Next Day-**

_The plan... The puzzle-daemon and that girl... He was going to enjoy this. This would be his greatest trick yet!_

_He let the wind direct him north, his cloak billowing out behind him as he traversed the clear sky high above the noisy and crowded city of skyscrapers._

_This world was truly the best of hunting grounds. The Daemon World simply couldn't compare. He cackled wildly as he absorbed the energy oozing from the chaos, the trouble, the disorder, the anarchy, that pervaded every human city._

_Humans were disorder. They brewed it themselves, in their very nature. And no matter how they attempted, time and time again, to bring order to themselves, they never truly succeeded._

_And that was what made this world so perfect for trickster daemons like himself. He sighed in contentment._

_In truth, he didn't really _need _to stir up chaos and turmoil for the puzzle-daemon to make food for himself (he had more than enough), but... he wanted to, more than anything._

_To see the look on Neuro's face when his trick unraveled! HAH! Saraniyu could hardly wait._

_He dropped lower into the city as the noisy moving human machines spewed black clouds, honking, and the humans went on with their lives, unaware of him in their midst, for his daemon tools carefully concealed him from view._

_There! Inside that human structure was the puzzle-daemon, and near him, the girl. Now to carry out the first part of his plan._

_Saraniyu dropped down onto a roof across from the detective office and waited for his chance. He would have to be alone with Neuro, for the first part of his plan to work._

_As he watched carefully, the puzzle-daemon ordered the human girl and the human male with piercings to go distribute pieces of paper._

_Saraniyu waited for the humans to leave and then dropped into the office, sliding sideways through the panels in the window._

_Immediately, the puzzle-daemon's hands grabbed him and threw him into the far wall. Saraniyu laughed. Neuro was so very predictable._

_The puzzle-daemon leaned back into his chair, looking bored, and then spoke. "Why are you here, trickster-daemon?"_

_"That girl..such a very nice girl. But still, a human female? Tell me, have your tastes changed...?" Saraniyu stood up and elongated his body, twisting it around the office, grinning._

_"Perhaps I should teach you not to meddle in another daemon's business, hmmm?" Paper weights came flying, one after another, at the trickster-daemon._

_Saraniyu avoided them with ease and just grinned even more. This just got better and better. Now he knew for sure. The puzzle-daemon _had_ to be in love with the human._

_Because what other reason could Neuro have for acting such a way? Saraniyu jumped up, spun in the air and laughed delightedly._

_"Hahaha..That's still not answering my question! But if the human girl means nothing to you, can I have her? I've always wanted a human slav-"_

_In one swift movement, Neuro catapulted across the room and gripped Saraniyu tightly by his throat, and began to squeeze. Saraniyu started to choke._

_Not that he was worried, of course. No matter how much Neuro might like to kill him, he couldn't. Saraniyu was under the direct protection of the Daemon Emperor, after all._

_The puzzle-daemon, true to Saraniyu's prediction, soon released him. Saraniyu slid to the carpeted floor of the office, limp. The trickster-daemon stood, and dusted himself off._

_Everything was going as planned. Neuro turned and began to walk away. "There's lots of rumors going around, though...rumors of your closeness to her..."_

_Saraniyu crept closer and closer until he was whispering straight into the puzzle-daemon's ear. "You like her...right?"_

_"She is my cover. She's only needed so that I do not get discovered. That's all." Neuro retorted back quickly before turning, hitting Saraniyu hard across the head and walking back to his desk._

_The puzzle-daemon had responded a little bit too quickly, on his part...especially if that was all to his relationship with the human female._

_The trickster-daemon carefully concealed his unfurling grin and sat down on the dingy couch located inside the small office. Oooh what fun this was!_

_"So... the things you do to her... For example. The tormenting and torturing-"_

_"For her evolution and for when she needs punishment."_

_"The protection you give her-"_

_"Dead, she would be of no use to me."_

_I see..." Saraniyu wanted to grin so very badly. What he was about to say was something Neuro couldn't refute. "What about the touching, then?"_

_"That... I... To torture her, naturally I would have to touch her."_

_"Not necessarily. You touch her much more than what's needed..._._" Hahahaha! Saraniyu knew he had found something even Neuro couldn't retaliate back to. _

_"She is my slave. My property. What I do to her is my business."_

_"...R-i-g-h-t..." Saraniyu drew out the word slowly to show Neuro he didn't believe him at all._

_Now to continue his plan, the trickster-daemon would have to steer the conversation in a slightly different direction. He had planted the seeds of doubt though, that was what was important._

_"You say that the tormenting and torturing is all for her evolution, right?" Saraniyu changed the topic quickly._

_"Yes..." No doubt the puzzle-daemon would be attempting to figure out his trick. But he wouldn't be able to this time! Saraniyu wanted to crow in triumph._

_"So.. in your opinion is the human girl evolved? Or at least at a level higher than most other humans?" Neuro's face was blank and bored-looking, but Saraniyu knew that wasn't the case._

_"Just where is this leading to?"_

_"Figure it out, man that devoured all of Hell's mysteries. You should be able to do at least that much. Now answer the question." Saraniyu stood and walked over to Neuro._

_"The louse... she is somewhat higher evolved than the average human."_

_"So... are you confident that your lessons will hold? That she will not devolve?" Saraniyu planted his hands onto the desk in front of Neuro and leaned forward._

_He spoke faster as he leaned closer to Neuro. "Can she withstand a common human disease that devolves the mind of any human that contracts it? Tell me that? Can she? Can she?"_

_Neuro raised an eyebrow and kicked Saraniyu halfway across the room. "She is too young for neurological diseases. Humans don't tend to contract those until later in life-"_

_The trickster-daemon quickly cut Neuro off. "Not a neurological disease. Not a disease of the mind! A disease of the _heart_."_

_With every word, Saraniyu came closer and closer, until he was in his previous position, leaning over Neuro._

_"Even if the louse were to have a heart attack, I fail to see-"_

_"No. No! NO!" The trickster-daemon leaned even more forward and poked at Neuro with one sharp claw with every word. "Love, Neuro."_

_"What?"_

_"Love. Human love. The most dangerously debilitating disease, out of all human diseases! It puts them in a state of constant confusion, and makes small obstacles look insurmountable! It devolves them and turns them all into fools!"_

_"The louse is not in love." Neuro stood up and turned away to look out the window._

"_But when she falls in love-" Saraniyu slid closer, knowing that he had trapped Neuro._

_"She will not." The trickster-daemon smirked behind Neuro's back, noticing the puzzle-daemon's claws were clenched tight._

_"All humans do, at least at one point in their life. And that human, the louse as you call her, is a human like any other. Gullible. Stupid. Ugl-"_

_"Shut your lowly unintelligent blabbering mouth! The louse is higher evolved than other humans, she will not-" HAH! Saraniyu wanted to get up and dance with glee._

_He had tricked Neuro into saying it!_

_"Well. You've called her all those things yourself, haven't you? You can't be _completely_ sure..." said Saraniyu insinuatingly._

_He wondered for a brief moment whether the puzzle-daemon even realized that his insistence in saying the human girl wouldn't fall in love had more to do with his jealousy than anything else._

_"The louse will not devolve." Neuro turned back towards Saraniyu, his arms crossed._

_"So, you're saying she won't fall in love?" Saraniyu said in mock disbelief. All according to plan._

_Neuro hesitated. "The louse..."_

_"Then we should test it," proclaimed Saraniyu, as if he had just thought of it. Which he hadn't, of course. This was just all part of his plan._

_The trickster-daemon continued, fighting hard to contain his glee. "Let's pretend that you're in love with her and see how she reacts."_

_"Myself? And the louse?" Neuro laughed. "She would never believe it. And why should I stoop so low, to pretend that I am in love with the louse?"_

_"We'll set up a believable situation where that gullible girl will believe that you've suddenly fallen in love with her. And of course if you don't want to, _I _could do it."_

_Saraniyu slowly began walking circles around Neuro. "Or if you want, I could use a daemon tool to make a human fall in love with he-"_

_Neuro cut him off suddenly. "I'll do it then. There's no need to bring another human into it."_

_The trickster-daemon lifted on lofty eyebrow and then shrugged. "All right then. I'll go to the human girl, give her a supposed 'love potion' and-"_

_"And how would I ingest this supposed love potion? There would be no opportunity to spell me with this supposed love potion since puzzles are my food, just as tricks are yours."_

_Saraniyu groaned internally for a moment. He hadn't thought of that... Oh dear.. Wait.. OF COURSE!_

_"You have not visited the Daemon World since your arrival in the Human World, is that correct?"_

_"Yes. Why does that matter?"_

_"You've become more h-u-m-a-n!" Saraniyu said with a sing-song tone. "If that girl knows of this, you may use that as your excuse for eating some human food! And that will be the opportunity for her to slip it in!"_

_"And what if she doesn't slip it in?"_

_"Then.. In that case, I'll come up with a circumstance where it'll end up in something that you drink, if , as you said earlier, it turns out that she's unwilling to put it in. The only thing you'll have to do is act like you're in love with her."_

_Everything had gone according to plan! Neuro's instinctive jealousy toward the girl had ensured his trick would work!_

_Then the puzzle-daemon interrupted his thoughts. "When will we do it?"_

_"Today," replied Saraniyu, bouncing up and down in excitement. Oh, he just couldn't wait!_

_"Today?"_

_"The sooner it's done, the sooner it's over. And the sooner, you'll know how she'll react in such a situation."_

_"Fine." Saraniyu nodded, acknowledging Neuro's consent to the plan and slid back out sideways through the panels in the window._

_Once he was out of Neuro's sight and hearing, once he was high above the city, searching for the human girl, Saraniyu began to laugh._

_Oh, Neuro. How very gullible he was. But love makes all people fools! (And daemons, the biggest fools of all)_

_As he spotted the human girl distributing flyers, he could not help but smirk. Phase two of his great plan! That human girl had no idea just how confusing her life was soon to be._

**/On The Other Side-**Neuro**/**

_He frowned, leaning back in his chair. What the trickster-daemon had said, had made perfect sense. But why did he get the feeling that he was being tricked?_

_Saraniyu was a trickster-daemon. Tricks were what he did. Disturbing peace, causing turmoil and confusion...that was what made up his 'meals' just like puzzles made up his own._

_But Neuro couldn't see any way for Saraniyu to trick him in the situation they had both agreed to stage. It all seemed straight-forward._

_The only thing he could see that Saraniyu might use to trick him with would be drugging the liquid that the louse thought was a 'love potion'._

_There was no such thing as a love potion among daemons, of course. What use would a daemon have for something like that?_

_Oddly enough, he remembered, looking back at his conversation with Saraniyu, that when the trickster-daemon named some of the adjectives he had used toward the louse, himself, he had felt angry, and his inside had felt like they were being twisted and knotted tighter and tighter._

_Strange. Saraniyu had only been naming adjectives, he had used himself towards the louse after all._

_And that feeling, when Saraniyu had volunteered himself to pretend to be the one in love or to substitute another human, he had felt it then too._

_An odd ache, a sudden pain, a feeling of his insides being twisted and knotted. What...was this type of feeling? He couldn't understand it._

_Neuro decided to dismiss the feeling away as a symptom of his hunger. (Even though part of him knew that the feeling could not be attributed to _hunger, _because hunger had never given him that much pai-.)_

_He stopped that train of thought. The odd feeling he had felt earlier, (and now that he thought about it, he had felt that feeling quite increasingly often lately) was because of hunger._

_Hunger. Hunger. Hunger. Hunger. Hunger. Which was the louse's fault! He would have to get the louse to go solve a mystery with him and then torture he-_

_Wait._

_He couldn't do that._

_He had to pretend he was in love with the louse._

_How annoying. But he had no way of backing out. And it might be fun. He could consider this 'love potion' scenario as one in which he got to torment the louse._

_Neuro turned towards slave number three. "Akane. Do not tell the louse of what happened here. Go along with the scenario that I am in love with her."_

Are you sure? _typed the braid quickly._

_"Yes," replied Neuro._

All right. I won't tell Yako how you've secretly fallen in love with her over the past year.

_When Neuro saw what the braid had typed, he became sorely tempted to throw her out the window. Which he most surely would have done, if slave number three wasn't a corpse._

_But, he could still make slave number three bend to his will quite easily. Her prime weakness was one he could easily exploit, after all._

_"Slave number three. Would you like me to introduce you to a Daemon World variety of lice? They EAT the hair, strand by strand before coating it with a sticky green mucus-"_

_Immediately, the braid immediately all erased she had typed, typed something new and waved around frantically._

NO! I won't tell! I won't tell her about your plan, ok! I'll do what you want! Just please please don't do that!

_Neuro smirked. Slave number three was so easy to manipulate. In any case, the louse and slave number two were soon to arrive._

_He had to get things ready. "Make a new cup of coffee, Akane. And don't interfere in anything that might happen while I'm gone."_

Gone?

_"Yes. I will be leaving shortly. If they ask where I've gone, tell them I went to get something for the office and will be back soon."_

OK. I'll tell them that.

_"And if you _even _hint anything to the louse about my plan or interfere in any way, I'll-'_

I won't! I won't! I won't! I won't I won't! Just please don't put any Daemon lice in my hair!

_Neuro laughed. Then he walked out the door, down the steps, and out into the street._

_"777 tools of the Daemon World! Evil Concealer!" There. Now the louse and slave number three would be unable to see him and everything could start._

_He flew up, up to the window on the second floor and waited for everything to start. When the time was right, he'd walk back in, and 'drink' the coffee that held the supposed love potion._

_Not that he'd actually drink it, of course. There was always the chance Saraniyu might put something unexpected in the supposed loved potion._

_But... with the louse convinced he was in love with her... there were just _so many_ fun things he could do to torment her. Under the guise of his being in love, anyway._

_Not that he _was_ in love with the louse._

_(What a ridiculous idea!)_

_He was just going to pretend to be. That was all._


	2. A Fateful Meeting and a Love Potion

Life Lesson #217 -Never accept glowing vials from weird people...

(Especially if most of the people around you can't see them!)

_["This, my dear, will _fix_ that ill-tempered boss of yours...Just give him a dose of this and he'll _never_ be the same.."]_

**/Immediately after the Incident- **Godai**/**

Whadaya want me to say, huh?

Am I sorry I did it?

HELL NO!

I don't like that freaking monster and I never have, ok?

HE MADE ME HIS F-ING SLAVE!

So, when I saw the weirdo near Yako, offering her a strange-looking vial that would fix that monster-

I knew what had to be done.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It's a sunny day in Japan.

And no, dear reader, no birds are chirping because this fine day also happens to be REALLY cold.

So here on this fine frigid day with a cold wind blowing quite strong, most intelligent people are on their way home to happily enjoy the modern comfort of the electric heater.

Sadly though, for two quite unlucky individuals, they are not on their way home and are instead stuck outside.

In the cold.

And here is where the trickster-daemon's plans began to unfold...

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"HEY! YOU! YEAH YOU! COME BACK HERE AND TAKE THIS F-ING FLYER OR I'LL SMASH YOUR FACE IN! YOU HEAR ME? HUH? DO YOU, YOU F-ING A-HOLE!/?"

Godai stomped toward the pedestrian angrily, waving the flyers.

I sighed.

Just another typical day for the slaves of Neuro Nougami.

Yep.

Neuro had sent us out here to pass out flyers for the Daemon Detective Agency.

He had been rather ..._irritated..._ lately and as usual, we were the ones suffering for it.

(No cases and little information from Mochizuki Information Co. makes Neuro a very grumpy daemon!)

I almost envied Akane at this point. Ah to be inside the warm office..

(but then I'd have to be a dead corpse and I wouldn't be able to eat, so..)

I sighed again, this time counting my blessings that I was still alive and able to eat.

Not that Neuro _let_ me eat as much as I wanted, what with dragging me to crime scenes and poisoning my food, but it was better than being like Akane and not able to eat at all.

I shivered in my thin jacket and then smiled at various pedestrians, teeth chattering, and waved my stack of flyers at them.

They kept walking, refusing to take the flyers.

Yeah, that figures.

I hugged my elbows and began again in my attempts to pass out flyers.

Godai, as usual, was jumping around, screaming curses at people and trying to stuff flyers in their hands.

I couldn't blame him.

The sooner we passed out this huge stack of flyers, the sooner we'd get to go inside!

Where it was warm.

Where my delicious takoyaki was waiting for me, carefully hidden.

Oh, if only I could stuff this huge pile of flyers in a trash can!

But no.

I couldn't.

I had to suffer outside in the cold and pass out these flyers.

Because otherwise Neuro would kill me and I would never eat my delicious food.

ARGH!

I kicked a nearby trash can angrily.

NEURO! I lamented silently. WHY MUST YOU BE SUCH A DAEMON!

"Miss, would you listen to me? I believe I have the solution to your troubles..."

My head snapped up...and then tilted farther and farther back.

A crooked and very very very tall man stood in front of me, his face mostly obscured by a huge black hat and his body wrapped in a huge black cloak.

"Did you hear me the first time, miss?" The crooked man loomed over me and then shrunk suddenly until he was only a few inches from my own height. "I said that I believe I hold the solution to your troubles..."

I backed away slowly. Who _was_ this guy?

"Look, I don't want to buy anything.."

"No, no." The crooked man smiled a terribly friendly smile, the smile brightly shining from beneath his huge hat. "It's all free. You won't have to pay a penny... Now then.. I believe there is quite a _daemon_ troubling you, isn't that right?"

"WHAT? You-!"

"My dear, there's no need to make such a fuss... I've concealed us from -almost- all eyes and ears...human and otherwise."

My eyes grew wide, reaching almost my hairline. This guy had to be kidding, right?

I mean seriously, human and otherwise?

It was almost as if he _knew_ that Neuro was a d-

But that was impossible.

So in this type of event, the best thing to do was, to deny.

Deny. Deny. Deny.

"I d-don't k-know what y-you're talking about, Sir," I smiled nervously, looking away from him and trying to catch the eyes of the people walking around us.

Nothing. Nada. No response at all. It was like I wasn't even here!

Edging away from the crooked man, I began to wave my stack of flyers at them and hopped up and down.

Still no response.

Ok.. This was weird...

The crooked man suddenly appeared in front of me once again and smiled his terribly friendly smile.

"What I said earlier was no lie. Now, if you are willing to listen to me, I believe I have the solution to your troubles.."

"What are you?" I asked suspiciously. Was he a daemon like Neuro?

"I am one that helps those who need it. I have come here today, to help you, Yako."

The weirdo knows my name.

Fantastic.

"What are you helping me with?"

"With that boss of yours, of course! He's _quite_ the daemon, isn't he!"

"You know-?"

"Yes.. I know everything...not to mention the answer to your troubles!"

"And what's that?"

"_This._" The crooked man raised one hand and opened it, revealing a small vial that glowed darkly.

"What is it?"

"A love potion."

"A WHAT?/!"

Frozen with shock, I stared at the weird vial. A love potion?

It sure didn't look like a love potion... Glowing green and red and black...

But how was a thing like _that_ supposed to help?

Not to mention... if it was a _love _potion... exactly who was Neuro supposed to end up loving?

The crooked man gave me a huge wink, as if he had caught onto what I was thinking.

"Wasn't I obvious about that earlier? No? Hmm... Right.. I forgot to add one more very special ingredient.. Just give me a few moments to take care of that.."

While I gaped, the man grinned at me, and in one quick movement, he uncorked the vial, tugged away some of my hair and dropped it into the vial, quickly re-corking it afterwards.

"Now that _that's _taken care of.. all you need to do is simply put it in his coffee and then-"

"NEURO DOESN'T DRINK COFFEE!" I shouted. This was ridiculous? Neuro in love with -gulp- me?

"...Silly silly girl. He has become more human, hasn't he? At the rate his conversion's going, he'll most likely need to drink _some _liquid within the next few days...Liquid after all, is important for humans, right?"

The crooked man steepled his hands together, grinning. "You're a smart girl... No doubt, there'll be _some_ sort of chance for you to slip it in.."

"THAT'S NOT GOING TO HELP! Are you insane? I DON'T WANT Neuro in LOVE with me! This is a bad idea! BAD IDEA!"

"Don't have such negative thoughts, dear. With this, he won't treat you like he does now.. I can practically g-u-a-r-a-n-t-e-e it.." He drew out the word slowly, his shining grin still in place.

"But I-"

"Don't you understand?" He sighed for a moment, his face expressing his sad lament at how very much I was missing the point. "This, my dear, will _fix_ that ill-tempered boss of yours... Just give him a dose of this and he'll _never_ be the same.."

Carefully, he pulled my hands open, placed the vial inside, and then wrapped my hands around it.

His hat tilted for a moment and I caught a glimpse of his eyes, black glittering orbs that glowed- and my breath caught in my throat, my whole body freezing up.

The crooked man bent down to whisper into my ear-

_"With this, your life will change...F-O-R-E-V-E-R!"_

Then he was gone.

Just like that.

I fell to my knees in shock, still holding the vial.

Some passerby stared at me and a few offered a helping hand.

Well. I guess that meant that I was no longer invisible.

Great.

Shaking, I stood up and immediately almost fell over again- crashing right into Godai.

"Huh? Godai? What-?"

"I got rid of the flyers. Let's get back to the office."

"But, my flyers, I didn't-"

"I took care of it."

He began dragging me back towards the office, a determined look on his face.

This day just kept getting weirder and weirder.

Godai didn't _normally_ look like that after performing a menial task for Neuro.

Shaking my head, I sighed and simply let him drag me back.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

I should NOT have let him drag me back.

Or at the very least, I should have thrown out that vial when I had the chance.

Well, at least now I know why he was acting so weird...

"OOOF!"

"AH!"

"YOU LITTLE-!"

And the small couch within the Daemon Detective Agency fell onto its side.

"STOP IT! You don't understand-"

"ARGHHH!"

And the coffee table also fell victim to the conflict, having been flipped over and used as a barricade.

Things went on like this for a while. Until finally-

"Don't you understand, this is our opportunity to be free of that monster freak!"

Godai stared at me, eyes narrowed, his arms on either side of my head.

I was trapped.

"But, Godai, you don't understand, this vial contains-"

"Poison, right?"

"No! It doesn't have that, it has a-"

"Don't lie. I heard what that weirdo in that huge black hat was telling you! He said that this would fix the monster and that he'd never be the same!"

"You heard that? How?"

"Tch," Godai made an annoyed sound, grimacing. "I have ears, don't I? Now, if you're too chicken to do it, then fine. NOW JUST GIVE IT TO ME SO WE CAN BE RID OF THAT MONSTER!"

"You don't understand, though, it's actually a-"

He placed his hand over my mouth, stifling my words, and then pried my hand open for the small corked container lying inside.

I almost wanted to cry.

But this was all too weird. Godai had heard the conversation between me and the crooked man?

He must have only heard parts of it, if he was so convinced that it was actually a poison.

But on the bright side, Neuro was out of the office right now, and he never drank or ate human food so Godai'd never get the opportunity to slip it in so I was safe...Right?

I took a deep breath and smiled to myself. I was ok. I turned around. And I still was ok. Right up until, I bumped into a blue-suited torso attached to a daemon. That is, the daemon detective Neuro Nougami.

"AHHH!" I screamed.

He stared down at me with obvious contempt.

"Lower your voice, Louse, or I'll use your vocal chords as my floss."

Neuro walked over to his desk and sat down in his chair.

I began to sweat.

But I was ok! I was ok because Neuro was a daemon and didn't eat or drink human food-

But all the same, I kept feeling like I had forgotten something-

Oh no.

Oh oh no.

He was turning human! And if the crooked man was right, Neuro would need to drink something soon..

"Slaves."

Godai and I stared at Neuro, waiting.

"Make me coffee."

My jaw dropped.

"You're kidding, right? Please tell me, you're kidding-" I stared at Neuro's blank face, hoping it was a joke.

Shortly soon after, I was hit by a great number of paperweights.

A few minutes later, I managed to stand and then stared with dismay at the scene taking place in the office.

Wahhh! This could not be happening!

I gripped the sides of my face, hoping that this was all some terrible dream.

But it wasn't.

This was reality.

And if I didn't do something -fast- Neuro was going to be in love with me!

It was rather amazing how the sight of Akane diligently set about preparing some coffee for Neuro made me want to cry.

Godai met my eyes once and then turned back to stare at the coffee determinedly.

A tense silence filled the office.

Soon Akane was done with the brewing and poured the coffee carefully into a cup.

As soon as she was done, I grabbed for the cup quickly- but Godai was there first.

"She didn't add cream. You'll probably want that, since her coffee's really black and all," Godai spoke nervously, stepping from foot to foot. "I'll do it."

He turned away, shielding the coffee cup from Neuro's view, uncorked the vial and began to pour.

I couldn't take it anymore.

Sneaking up from behind, I knocked the coffee cup out of Godai's hands.

Godai gave me a dirty look but said nothing as the coffee cup rose into the air.

YES! I silently cheered.

But it was a short-lived victory.

Neuro had managed to catch the cup and somehow some of the coffee still remained.

"For your clumsiness, Louse, you will mop the floors - using your _head_."

I laughed nervously.

"Hahahahaha, sure thing Neuro! Just let me make you a full cup of coffee first to make up for that one, ok?"

He said nothing, his glowing green eyes watching me carefully.

"Ok then, I'll take that as a yes, Neuro." I walked over to the coffee maker and grabbed a new cup, preparing to pour. I poured some coffee in and sighed in relief.

I WAS SAFE!

But as it turned out, I wasn't.

Turning back to Neuro, I smiled and gave him the full cup of coffee when I noticed Godai doing a victory dance.

"You took too long, Louse. So I drank what was left in this one." Neuro waved the now empty cup of coffee at me.

HE HAD DRUNK THE CUP OF COFEE WITH THE LOVE POTION IN IT!

What do I do now?/! Demand he rinse out his mouth? Tell him that there was a potion in it?

Wait- Let's not be hasty here, Yako. Some of the coffee spilled out right? So maybe, there wouldn't be any effect?

I wish.

Moments after waving the empty cup at me, Neuro literally dropped to the floor, his eyes rolling to the back of his head.

Godai cheered and ran out of the office, yelling "I'm free! WOOH!"

I took a step closer to Neuro, slightly worried. Maybe Godai had been right all along, and the love potion was really a poison?

Nope. Because of course, I couldn't be that lucky.

(Not that I wanted Neuro to DIE, but it was kind of better than him being in love with me..because that was just kind of really weird)

"Neuro...are you ok?" I picked up his arm, checking the pulse. (Do daemons even have pulses? Or hearts for that matter?)

Suddenly his eyes righted themselves and then stared at me with a really strange intensity."Yako-chan...Yako-chan..."

I backed away and did what any smart person would do- I ran like crazy all the way home and then up the steps to the hopeful safety of my room.

Because there was no way in Hell, was I going to stick around.

**/On The Other Side-**Neuro**/**

_Still on the floor, he smiles, remembering the Louse's panicked expression, and laughs._

_That went well. _

_(*)_

* * *

><p><strong>Any thoughts, dear readers?<strong>

**This is where my well for this story dried up.**

**If you wish to see this continued, please review and bounce some ideas off of me for what will happen next.**

**Thank you so much!**

**Qrzi.**


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